If you ever wondered who the freeloaders in your home were going to be, we finally have an answer. 1) Your teenagers, who are emptying your pantries into their cavernous maws every night after you go to bed and 2) your husband, who “just wants a bite” of anything you’re eating, although he’ll claim he doesn’t count because he actually contributes to the mortgage. But the other moocher under your roof is Whiskers! UC Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine just concluded a study showing that, unlike most species in captivity, cats prefer a free, unearned meal over having to work for it. When given the choice of a tray of food available for the taking and a food puzzle in which they have to earn their repast, our feline friends will visit the buffet almost every time.
Humans aren’t the only animals who delight in free food; cats love getting chow in exchange for nothing too.
A new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, published in the journal Animal Cognition, has found that cats prefer to get free meals over working for their food.
While this may seem like a no-brainer to some, researchers say the results are surprising because many animals, including other pets, enjoying performing tasks to get food — an act known as “contrafreeloading,” according to the study.
Working with a group of 17 domesticated cats, researchers presented the felines with an easily accessible tray of food and a simple-to-solve food puzzle. They found that most of the cats opted for the tray, even those with food puzzle experience.
“There is an entire body of research that shows that most species including birds, rodents, wolves, primates — even giraffes — prefer to work for their food,” the study’s lead author, Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist and research affiliate at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, said in a release from the school. “What’s surprising is out of all these species, cats seem to be the only ones that showed no strong tendency to contrafreeload.”
As the article suggests, the fact that cats don’t want to work for food isn’t all that shocking to us fellow free-feeding humans. Don’t get me wrong, I’d play a real-life, with-weapons version of chess for a freshly baked stack of chocolate chip cookies, but only if there wasn’t an unrestricted one sitting next to me. I can tell you from personal experience that a cat will find any free food available, though. Especially if it is your lunch on your desk. Those lighting fast leeches will have their paws in your pasta before you know what flew past you.
The part I was surprised by is how many other animals choose contrafreeloading. Apparently, I’m not alone as it’s only recently been noted and become a subject of study. I do find it curious that cats, who are such gifted and strategic hunters, would be the first group to say “forget it” once they’re locked up. Maybe the the puzzles are too easy for them?
This is a weird side note but I used to date a guy who went to UC Davis Vet Med. I’ve never met anyone more into their area of study. He’d start every conversation with some weird animal fact and sometimes incorporated them into his answering machine messages, “Hey babe – guess how a frog can kill you?!” “I’ll call back later, I’m still getting over the tensile strength of a goat’s back leg.” I really hope he’s happy and surrounded by many amazing animals.
Photos credit: Anna Kumpan, Felice Wolke, Fernando Jorge and Timo Volz on Unsplash
To which my cat says ‘ha ha, I always told you dogs are SUCKERS’.
The only time he has ‘worked’ for his food is when he figured out to break into his old breakfast feeder to eat the last day’s worth of food before the first day had opened.
I recently learnt that my (introverted and highly independent) mother is not a fan of dogs in general because they’re so attached to people and it bothers her how close that bond is!
Dinner is at 5pm. And she works for it. We think our rescue cat was previously only feed once a day (fed canned food after coming home from work, maybe). She will beg, strut, rub, yowl- despite having access to her kibble all day long. Don’t tell me cats won’t work for it. Dinner is at 5pm. And she gets it. She has trained us well.
You nail it at the end: she has trained you well. It’s a game for her. ‘Let’s see what I can get the human to do next…” 😀
I just thought about this a day ago or so too-
Cats know they are “using” humans to get free food. It explains their aloofness– sure they could hunt, but why bother when you feed them freely?
So they’ll tolerate your presence in exchange for meals. (Maybe, they decide you’re not so bad either after all)
Dogs, prefer to be with you, even if you don’t feed them (heaven forbid).
They’ll tolerate the crappy food in exchange for your company. (Maybe, the food you give them is specially for them, after all)
…something like that…
Dogs have had obedience and subservience bred into them for centuries. This is why they are man’s best friend. It’s not so much a choice as a genetic disposition, although there are always exceptions. Cats on the other hand have not been fully domesticated and are generally more independent. So when they befriend you and love you, it’s because they want to. I’ve been around cats all my life and only two of them were aloof. All the others were loving and affectionate without being needy and sycophantic. They are lovely animals.
So true! I had a wonderful rescue cat who literally leaped into my arms the day I met him. He was constantly at my side and showed his love in every way.
My darling bratty Yorkshire Terrier loved me but was much more independent and was not one to lavish you with attention. The cat was much more doglike than the dog, it was so interesting to be with them.
Thats such a generalisation. Cats have different personalities some are very attached to their humans and others not so much. And according to new research cats are primarily social animals that gets lonely left on their own. So while perpetuating this type of myth is common it’s also detrimental to cats health. Like dogs and all other creatures cats have a variety of personalities the problem is humans compare them or read their behaviour as if they are meant to act similar to dogs. Dogs have been domesticated for far longer hence their eagerness to please humans.
I’d have to disagree with both points made here.
-Coyotes, foxes, even wolves become part of the pack when tamed by humans (so its not breeding obedience or any “need to please” “into them”, its their instinctive pack nature, so to claim man did this to them is a mis-characterization, and
-Of course cats have varying personalities and attachments. I just made a quick comparison between the two species which corroborates the study that “news flash” a cat will take the easier path to food. In my opinion, a person is usually the easier path, since cats are highly adept hunters and do very well on their own (again, compare to dogs).
Actually, all animals take the easiest path. All of the universe does this (lowest possible energy expenditure). No one wants to work more than necessary to achieve something.
But there are different species-specific characteristics wrapped around this in each animal.
I compared two common ones.
This is interesting! I’ll have to look up the study. I wonder what the breakdown is vis a vis indoor/outdoor cats and male vs female cats. We have two indoor/outdoor cats (both strays), she is mommy’s little princess and completely uninterested in outside food, he is mommy’s little predator and frequently brings gifts home. Neither of them eat people food; they like to sniff, but not eat. Except cheese or potato chips, they get a tiny bit of that, lol.
Previously had two purebred Persians, indoor only. Uninterested in people food except for KFC. We’d eat the crust and suck all the fat off the meat, quite a symbiotic relationship, haha.
So you would “Alicia Silverstone” the KFC for your cats basically? 😀
That is so gross and hilarious! Guilty! 🙂 Seriously, these otherwise relatively aloof creatures would climb in your lap and up your chest… good times, good times…
They don’t need to work for food. Their overwhelming cuteness does it for them!
I regularly tell my cat he’s lucky he’s so pretty as his personality sucks.
Bahaha my cats are so sweet I kinda say the opposite – great personality, but sorta chubby. Anyone know how to get cats to lose a few pounds?! I’m trying canned food now. They even got chubby on raw!! :/
@Cassie My old cat had to go on a diet because she was overweight (she wasn’t just big boned). We had to completely cut out cat treats, which was a painful period for the both of us. And my vet recommended I switch her to a grain-free brand of cat food, so I started feeding her Wellness Core (1/3 cup twice daily, I fed her dry food). It took time, but it worked.
My cats turn on the cuteness overload when they want treats. It works every time.
I have fed many a neighborhood cat under the delusion they were homeless.
LOL as have I – they have learned all they need to do is stand at the door/window/on the wall looking sorrowful and you will feed them.
Cats are smarter than everyone else, humans included.
Oh me too!
I currently feed 2 strays but am beginning to suspect one of them is actually someone else’s pet so am just about to distribute a flyer around my neighbourhood asking anyone if they have any information or know if it has an owner?
Cats are so good at acting like they haven’t had a proper meal in ages!
I give in almost every time with my own rescue cat when she does a certain type of ‘scream/meow’ right in front of the treat cupboard.
What a sucker I am!
One of my cats used used to go and scratch at neighbors’ doors, rub against their legs and meow pathetically. He wasn’t allowed to eat people food because he had had a bad case of pancreatitis, but people would give him cream or whatever. I always gave him lots of food so he wasn’t starving! One of my neighbors even caught him in the big garbage bin behind a bakery at the end of the street scarfing down day-old muffins.
Haha – what a greedy guts!
I have seen online you can get collars that say ‘Do not feed me!’ which would be prefect for any cat that ‘works’ the neighbourhood.
My cats work for food only when it involves breaking into their snack pantry otherwise they wait until I feed them and whine all the while it takes me to open the packeging.
A stationary puzzle seems like a weird thing to try to entice a cat with. I wonder if they set it up with “work” that involved the cats chasing, pouncing and eventually “catching” something (a feather, a laser pointer light, a floofy faux mouse) to trigger the food release if they would have found more worker kittys
Yep, introduce a peacock feather and it is GAME OVER! Lolol.
Well, that’s the thing. Cats don’t like work, they like play. I remember reading an interview with an animal wrangler who worked with cats on movie sets – he said you have to convince the cat that what you want it to do will be fun. I read a similar thing about training llamas to be golf caddies – evidently llamas like to have fun, too.
The “cat daddy” guy from “my cat from hell” often recommends that people play with “stalk, chase, pounce, catch” prey drive based toys with their cats right before feeding them, because many cats love that kind of play and it fits their natural feline instincts of stalk > chase/pounce > catch > yay food!
It’s like doing things with dogs that have them using their noses or working some problem to access food … something canines do naturally.
“There is an entire body of research that shows that most species including birds, rodents, wolves, primates — even giraffes — prefer to work for their food,”
Well of course cats don’t prefer to work for their food, they are more advance than other species. =)
Saying that, our cat is picky with his food, he will ignore roast chicken (proven as I’ve accidentally left a leftover roast chicken overnight, it was covered in foil but he could have easily swiped at it) but he goes bonkers for any fish, salmon, cod, tuna, you name it, he will eat them.
When I serve my son fish fingers for his meal, I always remind him to eat it immediately as the cat will have a go at it which he done multiple times.
My cat had no problem with me working to provide him food. A lightly poached salmon, shrimp cocktail – but with fish fingers I’d have to eat the breading so he could eat the fish.
Oh yeah. My cat doesn’t like the breading either, but I don’t remove it for him because I’m lazy. Haha. And I’m going to clean up his mess anyway after he eats.
Cats figured out a long time ago they don’t need to work for their food, so why should they? 😉They have better things to do.
My cat legit stole a cheeto right out of my hand the other day. Little jerk. I would commit murder for him <3
I used to have a cat who was the pickiest eater and was never interested in human food. It turned out it was all a set up to get me to let my guard down. One day I was eating a turkey sandwich on the sofa with my cat next to me (I know, I deserved it), and as I lifted my sandwich to my mouth, she jumped up, literally knocked me away by bumping her head into my chin, and took a bite of my sandwich. I don’t think anything could have surprised me more, she outsmarted me 🙂
for all the people here who think it’s cute if a cat steals food right from your plate, hand, mouth etc…. its not! I taught my cats early on what’s acceptable and what’s not and they know not to do that ESPECIALLY not to take anything from my daughter’s plate
Naa, its cute and funny
I legit loled. I have two cats, both of whom I would commit murder for. And one of them would definitely be a cheeto-stealer.
I had a cat who loved potato chips. She was indoor only, but she got out once by mistake, and was stuck high up in a tree. I got her down to a lower branch by waving some sour cream and onion potato chips. Yes, I know onions are toxic to cats (I’m a vet) but a small one didn’t hurt and it worked! That cat would steal chips out of your hand. I miss her, I had to let her go two years ago due to cancer.
TIL I am a cat. Please set out a buffet for me someone.
Cats were once worshipped or revered as deities in ancient cultures throughout the world. They’re not stupid — they know their worth. Feed them as they command or perish, mortals.
Indeed. 🤣🤣🤣👏🏾👏🏾😎
Yes! There is a hilarious Futurama episode called That Darn Katz! about an alien race of cats from another planet that come to earth and act all cute and helpless in order to steal a rotational device [a huge ball of yarn] so that they can get their own planet rotating again. If they succeeded, the earth would stop rotating. Evil geniuses hiding in an adorable body!
One of the memorable quotes was from Bender watching a cat walk away: “Aw, its anus looks like an asterisk.”
The comments in this thread are making my day!! CATS RULE!
I too am a cat who doesn’t like to work for my food. No crab legs here.
Comment of the day, hahaha!
Agreed. I also find chicken wings and bone in chicken to be more work than I like. (Human here)
LOL! I make my husband cut the legs open for me so all I have to do is pull out the meat.
I hate working for my food so much that I don’t even cook.
I wonder if they’ve tried this study on humans. “You have 2 choices – run through this military obstacle course, or pick up the sandwich on the plate right next to you.”
I know, right? This seems like a very silly question to me!
Maybe the other animals found the puzzles fun and enjoyable and the cats didn’t.
I notice dogs are not among the species listed that prefer to work for their food, and yet they single out cats as freeloaders. Hmm…
Yeah and the worker animals listed are all wild animals who by nature would probably not trust free food sitting out and would instinctively hunt or work to get their own food.
I wonder if the rodents were NYC rats and if the birds were seagulls because I feel like specifically those 2 types of rodents/birds would DEFINITELY take the free food.
I just saw a headline, article was behind a paywall so I didn’t read it, where a woman in San Francisco is hand feeding raw food to the coyotes. And if she’s not there they sit and wait for her. I’m thinking we can add all animals to the list of preferring an easy dinner.
My cat is such a sociopath. He loves to be, get this, hand fed his treats (and I always comply because I’m a sucker) but when he gets out he brings me half dead gifts as if he expects me to finish preparing them for dinner.
I have mixed feelings on the ‘gift giving.’ It’s either he likes me and wants to give me a present, he thinks I’m a bad provider and he’s trying to provide for himself, or he wants me to know what he is still capable of.
Yeah, it’s hard to know. For our boy cat, he has a really strong prey drive. Ground squirrels, field mice, rabbits, snakes, birds, all brought in the house. If they are alive, they are mine and I take them out (after praising him and putting him in the powder room with him scrabbling at the door). If otherwise, out on the back deck and I don’t watch. It’s interesting, you can sense the energy when he comes in with a “toy”/food. Snakes are strictly toys; it’s almost like you can hear them thinking, WTF, I was just minding my own business, and you’re not even going to eat me…
It’s the first one, he loves you, and he never sees you catching your own mice and birds, he’s just looking out for your protein intake.
I don’t doubt that he loves me, we do the slow blink to each other all the time. I’m not convinced he won’t kill me to eat me if I’m late with his feeding though. LOL
HeatherC, did you ever watch the old Canadian cartoon Pelswick? The cat had an internal monologue. Best line about one of his humans? ‘I like you best, I’ll eat you last’.
IMO that’s what the cats are thinking most of the time. Which is you is most valuable to me? Then you live (for now).
My cat was also a hunter but he knew I didn’t like it so he didn’t bring anything home. However one day he walked in the back door and had something in his mouth which was sort of a bluish green color and I thought he had caught a bird. He was making that chattering sound that they make when they catch prey. My heart sank as I took it from his mouth. He had brought me a zucchini, from someone’s vegetable garden I’m guessing. I scooped him up and gave him a big hug, laughing my head off. He really had a sense of humor. I miss him so much.
Hecate, What a cute story about your ex. I, too, hope he’s surrounded by animals and living the life of Dr. Doolittle.
I feed my cats whenever they mill around the counter looking hungry and allow them to eat off my plate when they want to. They still go out and hunt, but never eat what they kill. I wonder if the puzzle is boring? If they had to catch a feather or something to make the food dish open they might choose to “hunt”.
Oh I bet they remember the time when they were worshiped as gods by humans and somewhere in their collective hope they are waiting for it to happen again. Dogs never had that, lol.
I have two cats, a boy and a girl (unrelated and only a few years apart). Personalities as different as night as day. She is sassy and he is just a big foofy boy. She rules the roost, only likes to be fussed with when she wants to be fussed with and he just likes to have his tummy scratched. He’s definitely more laid back than she is. Before I adopted him I had heard that was common in neutered male cats, if they don’t have the desire to chase the ladies they just become big friendly foofs. He was neutered as soon as he reached eight weeks/one lb so he really has no clue to what he originally had.
I’m sorry, not one lb, but two.
For what it’s worth, I have two boy cats who were both neutered around the same age as yours. One is a floofy dork who thinks he runs the household & also likes belly rubs. The other is a sort of bossy weirdo who would like to be carried around all day in my arms. I adore them both.
That has been my experience with neutered males too. Big, cute lapcat babies. While I have known three female cats who were total hunters and more independent.
I tried a puzzle feeder for awhile with my cat- he realized he just had to hit it hard with his paw and the food would just fall down, so it got annoying real quick. I fill their food bowl from a cereal container cause I buy the big bags, and when I have to refill it, he will literally sit next to it and eat as the food comes out of the bag.
My dog on the other hand? He has a snuffle mat and a snuffle box, and he will check there first, before going to his bowl. He loves sniffing out his food.
Except, cats don’t naturally get food on their own from puzzle boards. They hunt! So how is this a valid scientific study? Another study showed that cats get the same satisfaction from hunting and catching a real mouse or a toy mouse. My own indoor only ninja kitty proves this every evening as she goes on the prowl. She will bolt around the house, hide behind furniture, leap up on the backs of chairs. Eventually she ‘catches’ the ‘mouse’, her favorite toy of the moment, parading around with it in her mouth, making these scary war sounds.
So ask cats to choose between a bowl of food or food they have to ‘hunt’ for. I bet the results would be very different.
Exactly! My cat caught and ate a fly the other day while waiting for me to get his wet food into a bowl, but if I move his food bowl to another room or on top of the counter he would probably just go eat his brother’s food before doing the “simple puzzle” of finding the food bowl. There is an episode of the Netflix show ‘Explained’ about how humans decide what defines animal intelligence using human intelligence as a gauge. Seems here like maybe a “simple to solve food puzzle” may be using human logic rather than presenting cats with the type of hunting they would naturally do in the wild for food.
Yup! Exactly!
My dogs don’t want to work for food either. They prefer we do the work for them such as artfully scattering the food on the floor to make it more appealing and not overwhelming, providing a fresh bowl of water prior to each meal and both mom and dad paying 100% attention to them before they are willing to even consider eating the food.
If I set down a dish of fresh food vs a puzzle, my dog will go for it. They will also want anything I’m eating. They enjoy puzzles during playtime.
Cat person here and not surprised at these findings at all. My cat, who is extremely gifted and advanced (ha!, barely bothers crossing the kitchen floor to be fed. She knows I work for her. I love this post!
What a fun post. I wonder if the study included the wilder hybrid breeds.
I have two cats. One is a female domestic rescue tuxedo cat and one is a male F1 Bengal cat. Both are neutered. I love them both, but they are so different.
My little girl is a piggy but refuses to work for her food. I got them a Catit food puzzler tree for dry food and treats and she ignores it, which is a huge deal because she considers dry food a treat. I mostly feed them raw bowls twice daily.
My huge 3 year old boy is a piggy as well, but will ignore the raw food left out if there is a puzzle or playtime is involved. He prefers to forage and play until he’s starving and then will go to town on the raw food left out. He prefers raw and hates the dry, but if you give him a puzzle or incorporate it into playtime, he will go for the dry food. He likes to hunt and will sit and stare at my fish tanks all day striking at the glass if one swims too near. He’s thirty pounds of pure muscle and requires daily walks on his harness like a dog to expend all his energy or he’ll destroy the house. He will go after a bird or small mouse and if I don’t have him harnessed he will bring home presents. I wonder if Savannahs and other wilder cat breeds are the same.
I totally work for my cat. I know my place in the household hierarchy.
I’ve always said that if cats ever get opposable thumbs watch out world because they are going to take over (or at least they can open the door themselves and open their cat food cans).
I’m not really interested in working for my food either.
What that saying? “I work hard so my cats can have a better life.”
Hahah I bought my husband that saying on a t shirt
I love that! 😹😹😹
I’ve always thought if crows had opposable thumbs they would rule the world. There are probably other animals that are smarter than us too. I mean, we’re destroying the planet we require for our survival— how smart can we be?
Screw the patriarchy, we live in a catriarchy! I am okay with this and love my furbabies.
Didn’t need a study to tell me that!
As I write this my cat is passed out in an Amazon box in the hall. She works at bothering you for food, and will swat at the occasional house fly before lulling herself back to sleep. She is lazy and useless and we adore her.
My younger cat loves to hunt. She’s the resident mouser here and delights chasing and eating bugs too.
Her older sister long gave that up. She used to ‘beg’ for her food on her hind legs when it was feeding time, that was her ‘trick’ to earn the food. Now she just stares at me until I put the bowl down. Oh well
Hahaha omg this is so funny. We are in the middle of a cat battle for the ages. We went on our first trip since COVID and because our cats were adopted during COVID they are MAD that we dared to leave them with cat sitter visits. They went on a hunger strike for 3 days until they convinced the cat sitters to give them human tuna every day and leave trails of treats to the food to encourage them to eat. So without lifting a paw they are now eating like kings with no work involved. My cats don’t need puzzles, the little divas have turned our entire home into a puzzle with us on vacation. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Lolol, be prepared for a $h*tload of sulking…
Oh Lord you are right! One likes to sing to us at night…she will have a whole new opera ready
I’ll always remember the time we had a steak: an annual occasion. There were 8 people, the steak was on a plate in the middle of a crowded table, and the cat leapt up, disturbing no implement, grabbed the entire steak in her jaws and was off to a distant corner of the cellar in jig time.
My hard working feline finds this libelous & slanderous. As her minion I must take proper action somehow. She’s certain dark forces are at work with this study.
Love the cat pictures!
My cats will ignore the dry food in the bowl and chase flies around the house to munch on. I tried the cat treat egg and one cat figured out how to smack the treats out while the other sat, waited and stole the treats from the other. I think they are opportunistic like most predators.
I bought slow feeders for my cats. The skinny one was on it right away. The fatties waited TWO DAYS to see if they could break me into getting rid of them. (They could not.)
“Working with a group of 17 domesticated cats, researchers presented the felines with an easily accessible tray of food and a simple-to-solve food puzzle. They found that most of the cats opted for the tray, even those with food puzzle experience.”
What surprises me is that ANY of the cats chose to play the puzzle game rather than go straight to the food tray. I reckon that the cat/s that seemed to choose the puzzle were only setting up the humans for some scheme they had concocted. No cat will choose to do something to earn food if it doesn’t have to. The only way I could see that happening is if the puzzle offered better treats than the food tray.
What’s more surprising to me is that other species prefer to work for food when free food is available, that’s kinda nuts. It always seemed cruel to me to not give free food to your pets, they are pets, they are in captivity, they don’t have to need to work for their food, they’d hunt or scavenge for food if they could. Which is why I can’t have pets anymore, I find it cruel. The cat I had was lovely, he’d just be there for you, sit with you in a room and make it less lonely, but not pester you, I loved that he was just there, a fellow living creature lurking around. I love dogs but cats have a special place in my heart.
I would deny this, but seeing as I know which cereal my oldest cat (the princess of the bunch) likes lapping up the “cereal milk” of the best, I really have no argument to make.
It’s Cap’n Crunch, btw.